Please do not insult other people's abilities. The fact that some of us can find something more fun to do than get a document without embeded form feeds to print properly does not mean that we are less expert than you. If a grad student handed me a paper to review formatted in RFC format I would hand it straight back and tell him to work out how to use Word or HTML. Here we have a lot of people wasting cycles over precise adherence to a formatting standard that is rubbish. If we are going to accept a crappy TXT format then stop griping about the details. There is a particular view that computing and computer expertise is some kind of exclusive priesthood and that the objective of those learned in the craft should be to preserve the obscurity and thus the value of those skills. It is a shortsighted view. The best way to maximize the value of a computing skill is to render it obsolete. Cobol programmers make more than C++ Jockeys who make more than folk who program in modern languages like Java, C# and C. Oh and please no more of the thousand years nonsense. If mankind can decipher Linear-B after three millenia on the basis of two shopping lists and an op-ed piece then there is never going to be any problem with PDF or HTML. The idea that we would lose the ability to process those formats is simply too ridiculous for words. On Mon, Jun 29, 2009 at 4:37 PM, David Morris<dwm@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: > >>> The TXT versions do not print on my printer and have not printed >>> reliably on any printer I have ever owned. >> >> Yes, and that history goes back a couple of decades for me. > > Probably says more about ones skills than either the printers one uses or > ASCII as a document interchange format. > > I'm sure reading an RFC on a mobile device is important to the community as > a whole. Not! > > 1000 years from now, it will certainly be easier to recover content from an > ascii 'file' than an html, xml, or pdf 'file' created now. It is probably an > unjustified assumption that 'software' available 1000 years from now will be > able to render today's html, xml, or pdf. > > The more tools required to access binary content, the more opportunities for > access denied. ASCII has the advantage that many programs can provide > adequate access to data encoded in ASCII. It also has the advantage that > authors don't feel compelled to create pretty documents which may increse > the visual appeal but do nothing to enhance the content. On the other hand, > more advanced formats allow for decent technical drawings and > electronic references to related content. > > Striking the right balance between the efficiencies of minimalist formatting > and the capabilities of richer formatting will be a difficult challenge. A > primary requirement should be maintaining access in the widest possible set > of computing environments. The adoption of modern technologies is not in and > of itself justification for change. > > David Morris > _______________________________________________ > Ietf mailing list > Ietf@xxxxxxxx > https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/ietf > -- -- New Website: http://hallambaker.com/ View Quantum of Stupid podcasts, Tuesday and Thursday each week, http://quantumofstupid.com/ _______________________________________________ Ietf@xxxxxxxx https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/ietf